Lightning Struck Once
Experts deflate 5 common myths about getting struck by lightning
A Florida woman was struck and killed past lightning final weekend.
A Florida woman became the 18th person in the U.S. and the seventh person in the state to die subsequently beingness struck by lightning this year, co-ordinate to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Norma Woeller, 49, was stripping the bawl off a tree in her m Saturday when a bolt struck her, ABC affiliate WCJB in Gainesville reported. She died the adjacent day. The tree whose bark Woeller was stripping had been struck past lightning one-time last week.
Over the past decade, an average of 25 people have been killed past lightning strikes in the U.Due south. between Jan. 1 and September ii each yr, NOAA said. Florida averages 5 lightning deaths per year.
But many of those deaths are preventable, and experts say all that'due south needed is more awareness and for some common myths around lightning to be shattered. For case, they say, during a lightning storm, it's all-time to get abroad from trees as rapidly every bit possible. Woeller was the seventh lightning fatality to be standing near or under a tree this yr when she was struck.
Ahead, here are another things you need to know.
MYTH: Very few people survive being struck by lightning.
FACT: More than people survive than yous would remember, but some are left with life-long debilitating injuries.
Studies accept found that in the United States, 9 out of every 10 people struck by lightning survive.
This is partly because much of the free energy of lightning strike has already prodigal by the time it reaches people's bodies, and partly because much of the current flows over the trunk instead of into information technology.
Most importantly, people survive being struck past lightning because a eyewitness initiates CPR. People usually don't survive a lightning strike without exterior assist.
"The biggest risk is just that information technology stops your heart," said John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist with the National Weather condition Service. "And then role of the fundamental to survival is the assistants of CPR after a lightning strike."
But surviving is only part of the battle, as some people feel long-term health furnishings.
"Actually, that's only office of the story because many people are left with lifelong debilitating injuries — from headaches and nausea to loss of retentiveness," he added.
MYTH: You can lessen your chances of beingness struck by lightning past crouching downwards or lying flat on the ground.
FACT: Crouching or lying flat is unlikely to protect yous.
This myth is understandable because information technology draws from a well-known fact: lightning strikes higher objects more often. The Empire State Building, for instance, is struck by lightning an average of 23 times a year, according to the National Weather Service.
But hither's why going closer to the ground won't brand much of a difference: Only a small-scale portion of all lightning strikes on humans are direct strikes, Mary Ann Cooper, a former professor of the University of Illinois and an international medical potency on lightning injuries, told ABC News.
"The vast majority of deaths are caused by ground current, where lightning hits a distance away and so travels through the ground in all directions," Cooper said. "And if y'all're close plenty to the bespeak it hit the footing, then yous go an electric charge."
Your best bet, she said, is to head inside the nearest edifice.
MYTH: If you're wearing safety-soled shoes, they will draw off the current, and if you're wearing metallic objects, you lot'll be hit.
FACT: 'Lightning strikes where it wants to strike.'
There is no manner your attire has any effect on the management up to 2 1000000 volts of electricity takes, Jensenius said.
"In that location's kind of a myth out there that various things attract lightning or protect you lot," Jensenius added. "Lightning strikes where information technology wants to strike."
And wearing a metal bracelet doesn't mean lightning will electrocute yous.
"Typically, people may have burn marks, simply usually those are because lightning simply heats up the metal and that leaves burn marks," Jensenius explained.
MYTH: In one case you're inside the house, you lot're totally condom from lightning.
FACT: Even inside the house, you demand to keep away from things that acquit electricity.
Unfortunately, being within a building isn't always enough to protect you, said Cooper.
That's because one of the ways lightning strikes people is by transmitting information technology through something y'all're belongings.
"So, for case, y'all're in your firm, you're washing the dishes and y'all put your hand on the faucet," Cooper explained. "Lightning hits somewhere a distance away, travels through the water pipes and through the water and that's how it'll get you. Chances are, you lot're not getting that much energy because it'southward being dissipated forth the way, but you may still become this jolt. You may even get thrown beyond the kitchen."
Which is why, during a thunderstorm, it'south a adept idea to stay inside the house but abroad from corded phones, electrical appliances, wires, Telly cables, computers, plumbing, metallic doors and windows, according to the National Weather Service.
MYTH: If y'all touch a lightning strike victim, you lot could be electrocuted.
FACT: It's perfectly safe to bear on a lightning strike victim as you administer get-go help.
This might be the most dangerous of all the myths, said Cooper, because CPR plays a key function in helping save victims.
Most people struck by lightning crave firsthand medical attention because they're likely to have suffered cardiac arrest, so it's of import for people to know that the human being trunk does not conduct electricity.
"People do not retain an electrical charge," said Cooper. "They are safe to touch on, so others should go ahead and administer CPR because that'due south going to save lives."
For more than data on lightning strike rubber, visit the National Weather's Service'south website.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/experts-debunk-common-myths-struck-lightning/story?id=57475177
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